Mastering Camera Settings: Elevate Your Cinematography Skills

Review the three cornerstone camera settings—ISO, shutter speed, and aperture

You can learn lighting, framing, storytelling, or editing, but if you do not know how to translate your vision into actionable camera adjustments, you’ll always be at the mercy of getting whatever image you may get. Photographer Mark Denman once said, 'It's not enough to just own a camera. Everyone owns a camera. To be a photographer, you must understand, appreciate, and harness the power you hold!' Today, I’ll walk you through the three main camera settings and lay the foundation of filmmaking. Before we get started, download my free camera settings cheat sheet below, so you can follow along. The cheat sheet is formatted to be printed on a 5x7 card, so you can easily keep it in your camera bag for quick reference.